Thursday, October 25, 2012

Halloween comes early

The current issues of The Beano, The Dandy, and BeanoMax all feature a spooky theme to some of the stories to represent Halloween.

As any visit to a shop from Poundland to Asda will reveal, Halloween is big business for retailers these days with masks, toy skeletons, fake blood, witch costumes and all kind of horror-themed goodies for sale. Therefore it makes sense for children's comics to get a piece of supernatural action. Such 'Halloween Specials' were unknown 40 or 50 years ago, and over the last few decades have pretty much replaced the old traditional firework issues. (Although The Dandy and Beano did do a few firework strips last year.)

This week's Beano kicks off with a great cover by Nigel Parkinson and inside he's also drawn a three page Dennis the Menace strip featuring... Frankenswine! There's also Ratz by Hunt Emerson, Minnie the Minx by Laura Howell, Ball Boy by Dave Eastbury and lots more, including a one-off Horrornation Street puzzle page that I did.

Over in The Dandy, a nice eye-catching Desperate Dan cover by Jamie Smart opens the proceedings. Halloween strips inside include The Bogies and Corporal Clott by Nigel Auchterlounie, Bananaman by Wayne Thompson, and My Dad's A Doofus by Jamie Smart. (Remember to keep checking that Dandy countdown clock as we head towards the final print edition!)

BeanoMax No.70 has been out a few weeks now but also has a monster theme. Spooky stories include The Monster Invasion of Beanotown drawn by Nigel Parkinson, Cuthbert and the Rumpled Pumpkin by Dave Sutherland, and Gnasher's Bite by Barrie Appleby.

The Beano is priced £1.50, The Dandy is £1.99, and BeanoMax is £3.99 (the latter being bagged with toys). All are available now.

The Phoenix also had a Halloweeny theme with Planet of the Shapes and Bunny VS. Monkey both being Halloween-related. It would be nice if you could include it because The Phoenix deserves far more coverage than it gets!

I'm afraid I no longer subscribe to The Phoenix. When I re-subscribed before there was a serious error on their part (they claimed my credit card had been rejected, - it hadn't, - and I then discovered the subscription had gone through but I'd received no issues). It was eventually rectified with an apology "written" by one of their fictitious characters. Not a very mature way to handle such a serious error in my opinion so when my sub ran out I decided not to renew.

I sometimes pick up issues from Nostalgia & Comics in Birmingham. Good comic, but they need to sort out their admin.

Any embarrassment should be on their part. There was more than enough in my account to cover a paltry subscription to The Phoenix. As I said, they later admitted to their fault, after I spotted the sub fee HAD been taken from my account, but I don't feel comfortable subscribing again.

Their earlier comic, The DFC, also had problems with subscriptions, albeit not as serious as claiming a card had been rejected when it hadn't.

They need to sort out whatever human error is responsible because this sort of thing puts people off subscribing and it's the hard working contributors, hoping to make a living, who will eventually suffer.

I eventually got the issues I'd paid for (after I'd notified them of their error) but I'm afraid I'd become too wary to renew once my sub expired.

If I'd been younger, and hooked on the stories, I may have taken the risk but, unless I'm actually working for the comics, I only buy children's comics to keep up with what's going on in the industry, so I'll just buy it occasionally when I see it on the shelves of a comic shop.

Hey, folks! Comics!

About this blog:

Established in 2006, BLIMEY! is dedicated to British comics past and present. Images are copyright their respective publishers and are only used here for review purposes.

The images of comics on my blog are scanned from my own personal comics collection or, in the case of some current issues, are promotional images sent to me by the publishers. On the rare occasion when I might use an image from another site I always credit the source. If you take images I've scanned to use on your own blog/site I'd appreciate it if you'd have the good manners to show the same courtesy.

I operate zero tolerance to websites or blogs that indulge in wholesale piracy of comics. If you're a genuine comics fan, support the industry by buying the comics.

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About Me

I work as a professional humour comics artist and writer and have been freelancing full time since 1984, creating many characters such as TOM THUG, PETE AND HIS PIMPLE, COMBAT COLIN, BRICKMAN, ROBO-CAPERS, DEREK THE TROLL, SUBURBAN SATANISTS and others.
I've freelanced for IPC, Marvel Comics, Egmont, Panini,D.C. Thomson, and many others, covering the comics field from originated characters to licensed properties, pre-school to adult on comics such as BUSTER, OINK!, BEANO, DANDY, TRANSFORMERS, SONIC THE COMIC, TOXIC, VIZ, CiTV TELLYTOTS, LEGO ADVENTURES, HERMAN HEDNING, SWEET FA, ACTION FORCE, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, RAMPAGE, LUCKY BAG COMIC, SWIFTSURE, WARLOCK, WHITE DWARF, ACES WEEKLY, THE DAREDEVILS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, and many more.
My recent comics work has included:'Team Toxic' for Egmont's TOXIC magazine'Postman Prat', 'Kid Cops' and 'The Dark Newt' for THE DANDY'Rasher', 'Pup Parade', 'Lord Snooty' and 'Ivy the Terrible' for THE BEANO.
'The Daft Dimension' for DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE.